I think I'm turning Japanese

This weekend my friend from Japan hosted a dinner party at her house and taught us to make our own authentic Japanese Sushi. The first step was to take a field trip to the Japanese market to pick up ingredients. I planned to make vegetable sushi, so I chose (clockwise from top) pickled japanese eggplant (tokoton ganko nasu), spicy radish sprouts, a salted yellow radish (jumbo takuan), japanese cucumber, avocado, and (center) ohba leaves. In the top left corner are sweet shirakiku inari pockets. Not pictured are several bottles of premium Japanese beer.



My friend the sushi-sensei prepared the rice. After rinsing the grains, she cooks the rice in her fancy digital rice cooker. Then she seasons it with sweetened rice vinegar. She stirs it well to help it cool.



The sushi-sensei also prepared the vegetables. She slices the cucumber and yellow radish into spears that are the same length as a nori sheet. The pickled eggplant is in a brine, so she drains it a bit before using. At this point in the evening, the only help I've contributed is getting my sensei a beer.



But soon we got down to business. Our hostess laid down sheets of foil on the table, and distributed bamboo sushi mats. She recommends the mats made of thin strips of bamboo because they are easier to roll in comparison to thicker bamboo. Interestingly, our imported Japanese sushi mats had stickers on them that said "made in China."

Basically, we spread a thin layer of rice on a nori sheet using rice paddles, then placed fillings on the bottom half. Pictured above is a pickled radish, radish sprout, and ohba roll. Our sushi-sensei emphasized the importance of getting the rice spread out all the way to the top, so it's stickyness will help seal the nori once it's rolled.



Here's a nice fat radish roll, my first sushi. Once it's rolled up in the bamboo mat, we squeeze it tight to help it seal and stay together. Then we place them seam side down on a tray.



The process is repeated until we think we have enough. Then we make a few more just because.



This cucumber, avocado, radish sprout, and ohba roll ended up being one of my favorites.



Once all the sushi is rolled, find the sharpest knife you can and get to work slicing. Make sure to put your beer in a safe place when using the knife! If the ends of the sushi fall apart or don't look so pretty, sushi-sensei says to put those aside or just eat them. Don't put inferior sushi on the platter!



Here are the fruits of my labor. Luckily I had some friends to help me eat all this veggie sushi, and still had plenty to take home. It was served with the typical soy sauce, wasabi, and sake accompaniments.



For a sweet treat we also made inari sushi. The inari pockets are made of sweetened tofu that is somehow cooked in thin squares. When one is cut in half, it is like a pita bread and the middle just opens up. Then it's stuffed with sushi rice and the bottom is folded over as a seal.

Domo arigato sushi-sensei! Kampai!